Sony finally drops the PlayStation Vita’s price… in Japan

Powerful portable needs a shot in the arm to turn around dismal worldwide sales.

2012 might have been too early for a price cut on Sony's flagging PlayStation Vita portable, but early 2013 is obviously a different matter. Sony Japan announced today that both the Wi-Fi and 3G enabled versions of the system will be lowered to a price of ¥19,980 (around $215) starting on Feb. 28; a price drop of 20 to 34 percent (depending on the model).

The reduction comes none too soon to try to revive the powerful portable's standing in the country. After a relatively healthy launch weekend, Japanese sales of the system plummeted in its second week on store shelves. Those sales continued to sag week by week, except for briefspikes surrounding new software launches that weren't sustainable. The system reached a new sales low in November when it managed to sell only 4,021 units across Japan in a week, placing behind even the ancient PlayStation Portable and selling less than 1/46th as much as the 3DS in the same period.

Are the US and Europe set to see similar price cuts in the near future? In the US, Sony's descriptions of Vita sales have gone from "exceptional" to "acceptable" to estimates of only 35,000 sales in January 2013, which can only be described as "unacceptable." Europe's Vita sales have looked more like Japan's, falling behind even the PSP and well behind the newer 3DS in the region last year.

Sony also scaled back its worldwide sales expectations for the Vita twotimes last year after the market gave a collective shrug to show less than predicted levels of interest in the system, and Sony President Kaz Hirai said in January that system sales were on the "low end of what we expected."

That all points to a system that needs to quickly come down in price worldwide if it's going to have any hope of stopping its downward spiral. Perhaps Wednesday's PlayStation Meeting will include some portable pricing news in addition to word of Sony's future home console plans.

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

Not too surprising, really, given the myopic state of most Japanese companies. Portable is huge in Japan, and so why wouldn't you try to ride that wave? Nevermind that you're only looking at your domestic market with no solid plans for internationalization. Lack of software doesn't help much either. What they should do to give it a shot in the arm is deploy some system for people to get their existing PSP libraries on the device.

I love playing my PS3, hell I still love pulling out classic PC games to play on, but the majority of my casual gaming comes from my iPhone. I never want to be one to jump on the "smartphones will kill consoles" argument, but for me this is the main reason I can't justify getting a Vita. I have the PSP, and loved playing it, but looking back it's been collecting dust since I upgraded to an iPhone.

Not trying to argue whether one is better than the other. Clearly the Vita will have deeper games with a more traditional control scheme. My iPhone however has even more portability, and it's literally with me everywhere I go. Can't say that for the PSP or Vita, and with the growing library of deep iOS games, the need or want to buy a Vita grows dimmer.

During Black Friday sales I picked up the Vita from Amazon with Assassin's Creed III, A 4 GB memory card, and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale for $180. Since I already have Playstation Plus for my PS3 I got 3 or 4 decent games "free" from PS+ gaming bundle.

Honestly I do not play the Vita frequently, but since I get games from PS+ for my PS3 and Vita, it was a great deal to get 2 great games the handheld and the memory card for less than $200. I can use it on long trips or to play games more advanced than my phone can play.

The price of the system was already fine, although lower is better. The memory cards are the only part of the deal that isn't good value. A percentage price drop across all cards would help a lot of people to change their minds about the system.

What they need (besides dropping the price of memory cards), is some really good exclusive games. A new Monster Hunter, IdolMaster, or Final Fantasy. Throw in some good Visual Novels and Dating Sims for good measure.

Once you get the good software in place sales will take care of themselves as long as management can not do anything to stupid.

What they need (besides dropping the price of memory cards), is some really good exclusive games. A new Monster Hunter, IdolMaster, or Final Fantasy. Throw in some good Visual Novels and Dating Sims for good measure.

Once you get the good software in place sales will take care of themselves as long as management can not do anything to stupid.

Happened to me with the first PSP: super excited to play the (back then) exclusive Final Fantasy series on the go...how did that turn out? Crisis Core? Pretty boring. It was then sold. It didn't help Sony much that they first announced the PSP would run PSone games. Naively I thought that means just that: putting my old PSone games into my computer and have some Sony program transfer the game...

Sony might be making sleek hardware, but there DRM, pricing and overall corporate responsibility just sucks big time. Now that I have an iPad and iPhone I would really need a strong reason to fork out another 300€ so I can have a PSP.

Bad sales simply don't surprise me...there are so many reasons that speak against having the PSP in the current form and Sonys stubbornness won't help.

Is anyone willing to give an explanation of "the powerful portable," might mean, exactly, in terms of the PlayStation Vita, to a layperson? What's so powerful about it, and why don't consumers seem to want it. Does it fail to live up to its technical expectations, or is the price point just too high?

The PSvita never appealed to me - I use my PSP infrequently anymore now I have a smart phone. I rarely sat down to play the PSP for long periods of time, it's more be a 10 mins here and there kind of thing whilst waiting for someone else.

I'd be interested in a playstation branded phone if it wasn't crap like the old one and had access to a PSVita type downloadable game marketplace.

Mark me down as another "I'll probably get one if the price of the system+ large memory card gets low enough." I've got enough psp/ps1 games from the psn that I'd like to be able to put on the Vita before I'd want to own yet another gadget.

It's a puzzling trend (exemplified for me by the WiiU and slight iPhone sku's) to see companies not keep increasing their storage from generation to generation. For 2 decades I've only been upgrading computers when the new one will have enough space to comfortably accommodate all the files from the old computer and then some.

I really hope they don't announce ps4 prices that make it absurdly expensive (a la 64gb iPhone) to take advantage of backwards compatibility for all the psn games I've accumulated over the years. It's not about necessarily playing all of them, so much as not being forced to tediously contemplate what I may want to play later or constantly spend time deleting stuff to make room for something new. That's not the sort of experience that encourages me to buy lots of new things...

Is anyone willing to give an explanation of "the powerful portable," might mean, exactly, in terms of the PlayStation Vita, to a layperson? What's so powerful about it, and why don't consumers seem to want it. Does it fail to live up to its technical expectations, or is the price point just too high?

It has a custom Qualcomm chip in it that isn't really all that different from the one found in the modern LG Optimus phone and really is no more robust or powerful than any hero Android phone or iPhone. The real reason it has no appeal is Sony's ability to spread devices thin. Instead of say, like Nintendo, they focus all their marketing efforts on everything but the games. They want you to know you can watch movies, surf facebook, use 3G to check e-mail, skype chat, etc. There is also a serious lack of focus in the design of the device, with inputs sporadically placed around the device (like a touchscreen on the back, very awkward). The real damning thing is the incredible price of memory (used to purchase/store games on the device) and the lack of unique games on the platform. Sony marketed it as a device that is easily to port from the PS3. They advertise the device as "console gaming quality on the go" but fail to realize handheld gamers like myself, or the more casual phone space doesn't want a game that requires 30 minutes to just get started (cutscenes and the like).

Really it is the smallest of niche devices, like the Nokia NGage without the ability to make calls. If cellphone games don't scratch your mobile gaming itch then pick up a Nintendo DS or 3DS, because these actually have compelling titles and game experiences you can't find on any other platform.

Nobody cares about PS Vita because Sony doesn't spend much money marketing it. They're in a financial pinch and are hoping that Word Of Mouth will work out. There should be frickin PS Vita shaped candy containers, roadside ads, McDonalds collaborations, NFL collaborations, and PlayStation Stores to sell more hardware.

Marketing is everything. The PS Vita is the most impressive portable device I've ever purchased, but before then I was taking a big leap of faith.

Do what Apple does. Show us glimpses of the design and manufacturing process so thar we can tell ourselves "this is the best device ever made!" That alone would boost sales.

Every time I walk through the games sections of the big camera or games stores here, the Vita shelf always looks exactly the same. There are about 15 games on display, and I've seen them all before. I'm never even aware when new ones come out. On the other hand, if I turn around and look at the PSP section, it stretches on into infinity. And there are still new dozens of new games coming out all the time.

*That's* why the Vita isn't selling. Has nothing to do with how much is costs, or how much the memory cards cost. It's about games. There are none for the system. I think there are something like, what, 3 reasonable RPGs? In Japan? Seriously? I think there's a single visual novel, which on the PSP is a ridiculously huge (for what they are) chunk of games made and sold.

I own a Vita, but I'm still buying games and playing games for my PSP. I mean, I can only play Wipeout for so long, you know? And I still haven7t finished 7th Dragon 2020. Until the average gamer can buy the games they want to play on the system, I presume they'll be doing the same. Sony could price drop the system to ¥5000 - it might move a few more off shelves, but there still wouldn't actually be anybody *playing* them.

It has a custom Qualcomm chip in it that isn't really all that different from the one found in the modern LG Optimus phone and really is no more robust or powerful than any hero Android phone or iPhone.

What? It's a quad-core A9 with an Imagination GPU, absolutely nothing Qualcomm in it, unless they use a Qualcomm baseband for the 3G model.

Every time I walk through the games sections of the big camera or games stores here, the Vita shelf always looks exactly the same. There are about 15 games on display, and I've seen them all before. I'm never even aware when new ones come out. On the other hand, if I turn around and look at the PSP section, it stretches on into infinity. And there are still new dozens of new games coming out all the time.

*That's* why the Vita isn't selling. Has nothing to do with how much is costs, or how much the memory cards cost. It's about games. There are none for the system. I think there are something like, what, 3 reasonable RPGs? In Japan? Seriously? I think there's a single visual novel, which on the PSP is a ridiculously huge (for what they are) chunk of games made and sold.

I own a Vita, but I'm still buying games and playing games for my PSP. I mean, I can only play Wipeout for so long, you know? And I still haven7t finished 7th Dragon 2020. Until the average gamer can buy the games they want to play on the system, I presume they'll be doing the same. Sony could price drop the system to ¥5000 - it might move a few more off shelves, but there still wouldn't actually be anybody *playing* them.

Actually, you need initial install base for companies to make games.

Easiest way to get inital install base is either ride along to coat tail of its previous successes (which PSP really wasn't), offer first party game people can't refuse (which Sony always seems bad at) or have the console at low retail cost to promote impulse purchases.

As others have said, a price drop would help, but the reason I haven't picked one up is that I don't really want much of anything for it. Three of the things I'd kind of like are ports of PS2 or PS3 games I already own (P4 Golden, Disgaea 3, Disgaea 4), and the fourth is Gravity Rush, and that's only because I've heard it's the one good Vita-original game.

My original PSP largely plays ports, too, but since I didn't own a PS1 they were mostly ports of games I'd never played or owned (with a smattering of ports I already owned for the PS2, like P3P and Disgaea 1).

I would be *very* tempted to replace my PSP with a Vita if there was a way to digitize my UMD games and carry them over to the Vita, just so that I wouldn't have to carry UMDs with me ever again, but apparently that feature wasn't a good idea for America or something.

One reason I've heard cited for the PSP's late in life surge in Japan was actually that the DS was so popular for so long that it became common in Japan to be able to pirate the ROMs. (I realize that this is contrary to groupthink about the PSP's problems with piracy, which I don't dispute.)

With Monster Hunter being popular on it, it was a viable, already fielded system.

Three of the things I'd kind of like are ports of PS2 or PS3 games I already own (P4 Golden, Disgaea 3, Disgaea 4), and the fourth is Gravity Rush, and that's only because I've heard it's the one good Vita-original game.

You would love the Vita. I played a little bit of Persona on PS2, and the Vita version is far better. It's obviously remastered with better graphics and all that. I've played some Disgaea 3 on PS3 and that type of SRPG works better on a portable.

In the US, Sony's descriptions of Vita sales have gone from "exceptional" to "acceptable" to estimates of only 35,000 sales in January 2013, which can only be described as "unacceptable."

What is the obsession with official PR statements on sales numbers?

It's like the OP wants the CEO to confirm a pessimistic negative outlook on the product and gets frustrated when the official statement is muted and politely neutral.

I'd agree that the mass market sales are poor and this doesn't seem to be starting a new craze. However, the Vita really does satisfy a certain niche better than any other devices. If you like JRPGs and you want to replay MGS2+3 on the go, you really don't get the same thing with smartphones just yet.

I might be a minority, but I love my Vita. I can't play games on my smartphone anymore. I curl up in bed with Persona 4 Golden every night. Bought a ton of games off PSN for PS1, PSP, and PS3 as well, so I've got plenty to do while I wind down for bed at night. Just can't beat it for portable gaming, money aside.

The Vita is great for people that like it enough to plunk down the $$ for it. It's a nice piece of hardware. Unfortunately that group of people is fairly small. Especially with the bad economy, the "portable game" itch is largely being satisfied between deep games on home consoles and casual games on mobile phones.

Nintendo is facing the same problem with the 3DS - but it has a dominant DS game ecosystem to fall back on and a very clear "gimmick" in glasses-free 3D. But even they had to drop the price to get people to pick it up instead of a DS.

Sony meanwhile has screwed the pooch in PSP game transfer and wants to rob people with proprietary memory. Time for a price drop on the portable and its memory. Or better yet, just use @#$% SD cards.

In terms of a price drop? According to Nintendo the Wii U won't be following suit. Though....in a few months who knows?

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Guys, lets focus on the positives.

The Vita is still doing better than the Wii U.

Estimates for January were around the ~50k mark for the Wii U in the US no?

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In the US, Sony's descriptions of Vita sales have gone from "exceptional" to "acceptable" to estimates of only 35,000 sales in January 2013, which can only be described as "unacceptable."

Obviously due to the age of the machines a direct comparison isn't exactly possible yet. The Wii U needs about 1.5 million before October and I think we could say it's in better shape than the Vita. My suspicion, once they get a couple of their heavy hitter games out there they'll move the needed units.

Is anyone willing to give an explanation of "the powerful portable," might mean, exactly, in terms of the PlayStation Vita, to a layperson? What's so powerful about it, and why don't consumers seem to want it. Does it fail to live up to its technical expectations, or is the price point just too high?

It has a custom Qualcomm chip in it that isn't really all that different from the one found in the modern LG Optimus phone and really is no more robust or powerful than any hero Android phone or iPhone.

If it was a Qualcomm chip it would have had an Adreno GPU, not PowerVR. It's actually a co-Sony and Toshiba chip.

And the SGX543MP4 is already faster than the Adreno 320, Qualcomm's GPU in the S4 Pro (and the Snapdragon 600, the processor in the upcoming Optimus G Pro that you're probably referring to. Adreno 330 is coming, but later in the year in the next gen Snapdragon 800), but Sony use a + version, one clocked at 400mhz instead of 250mhz. Even over a year after its release, it's significantly faster than any cell phone on the market, probably faster than any tablet.

That's ignoring that Sony can tweak the software significantly more than a developer for a swathe of Android devices.

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The real reason it has no appeal is Sony's ability to spread devices thin. Instead of say, like Nintendo, they focus all their marketing efforts on everything but the games. They want you to know you can watch movies, surf facebook, use 3G to check e-mail, skype chat, etc. There is also a serious lack of focus in the design of the device, with inputs sporadically placed around the device (like a touchscreen on the back, very awkward). The real damning thing is the incredible price of memory (used to purchase/store games on the device) and the lack of unique games on the platform. Sony marketed it as a device that is easily to port from the PS3. They advertise the device as "console gaming quality on the go" but fail to realize handheld gamers like myself, or the more casual phone space doesn't want a game that requires 30 minutes to just get started (cutscenes and the like).

I actually kind of think that Sony should have gone one step further and made it a usable phone, although it would have looked kind of dorky without a bluetooth headset.

But they definitely screwed up the games. Remote play sounded like an awesome idea, being able to play GT5 or Uncharted in bed, but it has the support of all of about 2 games (ICO would be pretty nifty, I must admit). It's like the Move all over again, I own a Move and take a look around every month or two for titles worth playing, some were great, Killzone was a lot more fun with the gun than a controller (it wasn't a great game though) and the Move really bought something to Heavy Rain. But there's nothing really there to justify it.

I disagree on the casual gaming side though. When I buy a new game, I like to sit down and give it a good couple of hours, unless it's the new angry birds. So long as I can pick it up and keep playing later without waiting I think Sony are fine with that. There's always PSN games too for pick up and play. They're not going to win competing against cell phones, cell phones have already won. They're going to compete by offering proper gaming experiences in a handheld. The problem for Sony is that either no one wants that anymore or the lack of games makes it impossible to bring all the boys to the yard.

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Really it is the smallest of niche devices, like the Nokia NGage without the ability to make calls. If cellphone games don't scratch your mobile gaming itch then pick up a Nintendo DS or 3DS, because these actually have compelling titles and game experiences you can't find on any other platform.

3DS has been pretty disappointing too though. Not Vita disappointing, but not great. Besides Kid Icarus did anything of note actually come out on it in the last 12 months?

I kind of wonder if Sony shouldn't just pull it from the global market though. The new games coming are all squarely targeted at Japanese audiences (except a Killzone game at some unknown future point). At the very least build it up as a desirable device there then go global with it, treat it like a small company project.

Is anyone willing to give an explanation of "the powerful portable," might mean, exactly, in terms of the PlayStation Vita, to a layperson? What's so powerful about it, and why don't consumers seem to want it. Does it fail to live up to its technical expectations, or is the price point just too high?

It's a product that has no point.

Smartphone and tablets have taken the portable gaming market. This has been clear since about 2009, but Sony continues pretending that they don't see that. In a time where smartphones range in price and performance from a $650 iPhone to perfectly capable $100 low end devices in emerging markets, mass market customers don't have any need for a dedicated handheld, because their phone-that they have on them at all times-has access to app stores filled with hundreds of thousands of free to low cost games. Why would any person pay hundreds of dollars for a Vita, to then pay $40/game? Tiny Wings is a huge success that people love, and that's 99 cents.

There is no way Sony can compete with that, especially when the Vita has no meaningful innovations that justify it's higher cost over a smartphone. It's a product that has no reason to exist, and customers see that fact as clear as day.

Cell phones have killed portable gaming. There is no point in lugging around a PSP or 3DS when you have a cellphone with you, with tons of games at bargain basement prices. But then there's no point in playing those cellphone games, since the playable ones are infuriatingly simple and repetitive, and the spectacular ones are unplayable with the virtual controllers. So in the end, in the train or the subway you settle for Facebook, Twitter, or browsing the internet (as I am doing now).

Ultimately, it's all about the games. The 3DS has a mediocre screen, a single analog stick, and feels like it will break into a million pieces if you drop it. However, the most popular games are on the 3DS and that's not going to change in the near future. Sony's loss of Monster Hunter probably killed any hopes the Vita had.

That being said, the future seems very bleak for Nintendo. Phones (and tablets) are taking over the portable gaming arena and the home console will probably be dominated by Sony and Microsoft. I think it's very possible that Nintendo might be forced out of the hardware business entirely.

I have a Vita...and I love it. However, my situation is particularly well-suited for a true handheld console experience. I am a military medic that spends a great deal of time sitting in an ambulance out in the field waiting for someone to get hurt. My Vita is the perfect device for hours-long gaming sessions when I have to be sitting in the front seat of a vehicle, or on a cot in a tent in the middle of nowhere.

My iPhone, on the other hand, serves me better when I'm waiting for a briefing to start or when occupying the bathroom for extended periods of time.

Unfortunately, I think more people can relate to the second scenario, which is what, I think, will ultimately drive down the price of the Vita in the U.S. That, and they REALLY need to get some killer games on the thing. I'm looking at you Bioshock and God of War...

Lack of games for the Vita? The problem is that is half-, wait better make that two-thirds true. Shooters, Platformers, and Action games are being released. In Japan. (Light Novels and Dating Sims by the bucket, as well.) US? Not so much. European releases? even less so.

For the Japanese market, one on-line sales site lists 53 games available for pre-order for the Vita. (Including limited editions in this count.) About five or so are ports from older systems like Muramasa (which is up for pre-order in the States as well.) US market lists 15 games for pre-ordering, including a couple of Lego games. And only 7 for the European market. Same thing for the other hand-held consoles.

Perhaps after they get some free virtual console games that they promise only early adopters will get?

I gave up on my vita and traded it in. Between the price, lack of games, lack of retaining the WiFi connection (oh you weren't doing anything for 2 minutes? Now you gotta refresh your messages/friends list/etc), and the fact that after psn plus finally reached the console all the good games I bought were given away for free, AND the ridiculous proprietary flash memory prices.... Oh what was I ranting on about again?

Sony missed the mark and no amount of price cuts will fix it. It didn't for the psp, it won't for the vita.

nintendo understand there's a world that no one has commented on; children. they will always have an audience because videogames are an activity that can be enjoyed from young ages. sony has never understood the needs of the youngest of gamers (and the wallets of their parents) when it comes to gaming hardware.

This thing was DoA. Sony should have gone forward with the Xperia Play concept...phones with dedicated controls - best of both worlds. No one wants to carry around single task devices anymore. I love my DSi but it doesn't leave the house unless I'm going on a trip.